How Koran burning in Florida could play in the Muslim world

Jones is out of step with the religious teachings of Christianity – a point underlined by the concerted effort of evangelical church leaders to get him to back down from his Koran burning plan. But this point will largely be lost on the likely protesters across the Islamic world. Unfortunately for many, Jones will become as defining a figure of Christianity as Osama bin Laden is of Islam.

All over the world, explaining that the acts of lone individuals do not represent the majority of any given country becomes more and more difficult. How to explain to Westerners that flag-burning protesters in Kabul don't represent the complexity of feelings among Afghan Muslims? How to explain that the vast majority of Afghan Muslims don’t adhere to the radical ideology of Mr. bin Laden and instead practice a tolerant branch of Sufi Islam that embraces Jesus as an equal with other prophets? How to explain that the only people who still believe in the "clash of civilizations" are Islamist radicals like bin Laden?

Before I left Kabul several years ago, I watched news clips of the street protests in Kabul over the cartoon controversy. Danish flags were being burned in a country that had never before seen the Danish flag. Across the country, aid workers were clustering inside their compounds, suspending the work of building schools and clinics and bracing for the possibility that those schools and clinics (and indeed their own lives) may now be in danger.

On the plane home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was watching the beginning of the end of a friendship.

This week, America’s commander on the front lines of Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, criticized the planned Koran burning. He said it would endanger US troops in the field, the US mission in Afghanistan, and efforts around the world. He could probably add US diplomats, Peace Corps workers, and American aid workers.

I hope that won't be the case. As Jones prepares to ignite Muslim holy books in Florida this weekend, perhaps we can all take solace in the fact that millions more independent thinkers are putting their Bibles and Korans to their intended purpose: to make the world a better place.

Scott Baldauf was the Monitor's South Asia bureau chief from 2001 until 2006, and is now the Monitor's bureau chief in Johannesburg.

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